Here and Now!

Cancun, Mexico. The city is just waking up on this early Sunday morning and it even seems that the birds in the nearby park caught this common Sunday attitude. Cancun is especially beautiful on those peaceful days when in spite of the 24/7 schedule that the tourist cities usually follow there are almost no cars and people.

I am walking through the park to get my laundry; it is time to get ready for the upcoming trip and the thoughts about life keep tormenting my brain. What is that I am missing? For already half a year I´ve been living in a place most people just dream to live in. Beautiful waters of the Caribbean that turn from dark blue to bright azure and make me smile every day on the way to work. Work that I was dreaming about – not every day you got to be a tour guide in Mexico exploring the life of ancient maya, spending all the day outdoors and getting paid for it.

Park near the house. Exit to the roof from the apartment. Sun all year round except a little winter period that came over for a while and was manifested by rain and OMG-very-cold +20 degrees. Amazing beach 40 min away. Friends from other parts of the world visiting me and a few very good ones here. I think it is the best life conditions I’ve ever had, but…it’s getting too comfortable.

Before I could never understand what makes me leave good jobs, startups, places, people and keep moving making my parents just sigh “again?”. I know there are different ways of enjoying life and exploring the world, but why does the majority follow the commonpath work-home-sleep-work?

„Do you really want to enslave yourself for the next 20 yearsworking for someone, craving for the next vacation and saving up for your pension fund?“

I am not so sure about that.

I still suspect that maybe I was a gypsy in the past life and I finally realized that the idea of making a lot of money by building the business and then travelling, or working really hard for a few years and then travelling doesn’t really turn me on. Anything with „THEN“ just doesn’t fit. Since I was a kid I never had an exact understanding of „what I want to be when I grow up“, I’ve always wanted to try Very different professions (by Very I mean the ones from actress/singer to astronaut/ deep water diver), live in different countries, experience different things, indulge my curiosity for life. Sounds romantic, right?

Of course at some point the standard education and imposed values of being successful and rich have dulled these dreams and made this lifestyle look impossible. Only after following the common path school-university-work for a while and understanding that the next steps to follow are marriage-kids-work-pension I’ve realized that it’s not the life that I want. And it is just becoming very clear that

The time to live those dreams is NOW(!), not THEN.

For me traveling is a lifestyle, the search of unknown, unseen, unexpected that makes the butterflies in your stomach go crazy.

Have you ever raised to the top of the mountain where all you can here is complete silence and the light breath of the wind?

Have you crawled through the ancient underground rivers with stalactites in the complete darkness?

What about seeing the snow covered Himalayas and bathing in the sacred hindu river?

One sip of those emotions is enough to get you addicted for the rest of your life. One more breath taking view, one more volunteer project, one more exotic animal seen, one more amazing seashore, one more interesting conversation, one more inspiring fellow traveler…it’s never too much.

It is comparable to spiritual search because in the new places in new circumstances, way out of your comfort zone and far from everything familiar you start understanding who you really are. This path doesn’t have any specific destination yet. It is like a learning curve, which will end at some point leading to the next important step. I don’t even exactly know the purpose of this globetrotting but the gut feeling tells me that I am in here not to be stuck between 4 walls counting hours till the end of the working day, that it is in my capacity to make the world a little bit better and enjoy every tiny little moment of being here.

„No past, no future, what I have is here and now.“

Sasha

What do you think about living in the present? Enjoying life to the fullest, Here and Now! Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Being the daughter of a military pilot Sasha has felt the taste of travelling from the first years of her life and could never stop since then. Two days after the graduation she left cold Russia to contribute to the growth of an NGO in the Dominican Republic and since then the Caribbean has become second home to her. After having worked at the variety of different jobs, having managed her own hostel and travelled to the soul nurturing India she is discovering the Yucatan peninsula thanks to her current work as a tourguide and getting ready to get on a backpacking trip around Mexico. With some motivating start up ideas to be realised she is still working out the plan of living and working in at least 150 different countries through the course of her life.